Dear LPG readers,

When you think of all those things we have lying around the house I think that most older people will find a pack of cards in a draw or a cupboard somewhere.   I came across a collection of packs that I forgot I had recently and they got me reminiscing.

If you are able to really think that far back, you might, like me, have a recollection of that serious inter-sibling incident caused when one of us tried to pair Mr Bun the baker off with Mrs. Bone the butcher’s wife during a game of ‘Happy-families’.   Although I don’t remember all the details of the dispute I do remember our mother having to sort my brother and me out that day.  There were other games as well but, board games were a lot more complicated to tidy away than card games which is why I think we stuck with cards.  Soon we moved onto ‘Snap’ and from the good old-fashioned picture cards to the version that featured the set of 52, but you could tell that we excluded the jokers in the pack because although we all talk about ‘playing’ cards, at times you could tell that the competitive need to win made our games very serious.  

As I grew up a bit more, my next encounter with card games had to be all those cowboy films where a group of really macho men would be sat around a table in a room full of cigarette smoke, which they would all be contributing to producing.  They would be eyeing each other while holding their cards facing towards them, close to their chests and making sure that their facial expressions did not give away how well they thought they were playing the game.  There would be some cards on the table of course but much more importantly, there would be one shot glass per person, a bottle of something dubious and alcoholic looking, and assorted piles of money in view.    

But back to the cards…

When I got a bit older, after a day at school or work. I found a relaxing game of cards the perfect way to unwind and any solitaire game player will know that one game leads to another.  I remember being ill, but not so ill that I needed to sleep all the time, and while stuck in hospital it is the perfect answer when it comes to keeping busy before visiting time. It is the perfect way to pass the time because, if you cheat, the only person you are cheating is yourself.  But that element of competing remains even though you are playing against the system. 

Then came the computer, and if it’s one thing I both bless and curse Windows for, it continues to be making the online version of solitaire so easy to access.  Now that I can play on line, one game continues to lead to another.  I have spent many a night playing way too far into the early hours. It is so bad that one of my new year’s resolutions has been to put a limit on how many games I play a day and I have even tried to give it up for lent. 

There are online leagues and groups but I am not part of any of them.  I have no interest in the statistics that tell you how many games you have won or lost and there is no one but me checking my progress.  When I get to the end of the two a day I allow myself these days, it is still really hard for me to press the ‘end game’ button. 

The website does its best but in spite of all the alternative games it tries to tempt me with, I have never wanted to learn another online card game and I regularly promise myself that I will not press the button that activates this game when I am trying to work at something else but I do.  

I would call it a sort of gambling addiction but for the fact that there is absolutely no gambling or money involved.  The only thing it has to recommend it is that it definitely passes the time.

The good thing about playing on the computer is that you do not need a poker face.  The computer can only see what you are doing and not how your are feeling or reacting whatever card game you are playing.

 Is there anyone else who just can’t help it?  

DT, Catford

Just in case you have never played DT has found a beginner’s guide or two…

(►►►)   (►►►)     (►►►)    (►►►)